Traincation

I had the privilege to attend the Swim Bike Mom Traincation at the end of February with about 30 other lovely ladies. The event hosted by Swim Bike Mom herself, Meredith Atwood (http://www.swimbikemom.com/) and Coach Brett Daniels from PTS Sports (http://www.ptssports.com/) was held in Panama City, Florida. Here is my blow by almost blow of the weekend.

My lovely and funny as Hell teammate Colleen (http://crabcakesandironman.blogspot.com/) from Maryland made the five hour trip to Raleigh so we could make the remaining ten hour trip together. The trip almost did not happen as Raleigh got several inches of snow dumped on it Wednesday night into Thursday morning. We lost electricity during this time. Thank goodness for gas logs and a generator.

Colleen and I had never meet but I was not concerned because I liked her humor so I knew we would get along. Her mother was concerned I was an axe murderer and that this whole thing was a shame but I am happy to report Colleen is still alive and kicking. As I had predicted we got along like peanut butter and jelly. It was like I had known her all my life. I just wish she lived closer. I already miss her very much-I love you Colleen!

Colleen and I being silly

Anyway, we stopped overnight in Georgia so we didn't have to do the whole ten hours at once. We arrived in warm sunny Florida the next day, got checked in and like all good triathletes went for a run on the beach. Did I mention how warm and sunny it was? Scratch that shit, it was cold and cloudy. The moto for the weekend became "Fuck Florida"!

Running on the beach

Activities didn't start till that evening. We had a meet and greet followed by a keynote speech by Meredith, training/race day nutrition by Brett, and injury prevention by Jack Jones also of PTS Sports. One of my favorite parts was meeting some of my other witty and lovely teammates Therese, Sarah, Margaret, and of course the ring leader Meredith. Meredith is so down to earth and very funny. She is definitely not too big for her britches which I love about her. She is actually very humble and doesn't realize what a big deal she is in the tri world.  Really, everyone there was just as nice as can be including the two token men folk Brett and Jack.

Me and Meredith aka Swim Bike Mom

The nutrition portion was really great as I need to work on fine tuning mine. I tend to do ok in practice but then race day I get hurried and don't follow my plain like I did in training. This sometimes does not work out too well for me especially if it is hot. It's something I am going to try and get better at this year especially since I have a 70.3 on the calendar. I also enjoyed the injury prevention segment as it taught me some new exercises to add to my repertoire. Can you say hip hikes!?!

The next morning we meet up for a swim. Now if you remember from earlier I said it was cold and that morning was no different. As we drove up we noticed that there was no indoor pool. What the hell? Now since Florida is typically a warm state this is fairly common. The pool itself was heated but the outdoors was not. Lets just say it was a wee bit nippy out when stripping down to your bathing suit in the wind and cold. The pool was much warmer. I stuck with the B group and worked on drills and such which is always a good thing for me. I wouldn't have minded being with the experts as they got to do more of a workout but that's ok as they probably would have mowed me down.

Biker Chicks

Sportin' my new windbreaker

Out of the pool and onto the bike. It was really windy out so I put myself with the B group because they were not going as far and sometimes wind pisses me off. The course was totally flat besides a few douche grade hills and a bridge. When we got to the turn around I ended up joining group A for a longer, faster ride. I am so happy I did that as I got to ride with Brett and some other great riding ladies. I stayed up with Brett most of the ride and at one point he turned to me and asked if I wanted to go faster. Well, hell yes I do. Despite the strong headwinds we were hitting between 18-20 mph. I was so proud of myself for keeping up. Brett also had kind words about my skills so that made me feel good too.

Group ride

After our ride we had a brief break and then had a short clinic on improving our transitions. The wind really started kicking up and the temperature was dropping so we didn't spend too much time which I think everyone was ok with. We returned to the resort and showered then met up for a seminar on crushing our 70.3 by Brett. It was really informative and I cannot wait to put some of his tips to work this season. We had a group dinner and then off to bed because lets face it we were all tired. So much for drinks on the deck.

The next day started off with a run clinic. We learned some good drills and warm up exercises do do before we started running. I headed out with group A because they were running more my pace. I turned around at the 3 mile mark because my foot was still bothering me so no need to aggravate it more. I did manage a negative split and ran the last mile at a 9:27 pace. Foot be damned. Some people put their wetsuits on and swam in the Gulf after the closing remarks. With temperatures in he 50s I decided to skip out on that fun. I had enough of being cold.

It was a fun weekend and I loved meeting so many fun ladies but mostly getting to met a few of my teammates. Colleen, Therese, Margaret, Sarah, and Meredith I miss you all already! Love you ladies to the moon and back!

SBMAT 2015: Margaret, Me, Therese, Colleen, Sarah, and Meredith